BERLIN (AFP) - Far-right fringe parties made huge gains in two former communist eastern states as German voters dealt fresh electoral blows to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder`s Social Democrats amid ire over his economic reforms.
The neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) roared ahead in Saxony, polling 9.2 percent -- a sixfold increase over 1999 and well above the five-percent hurdle necessary for parliamentary representation.
And the extreme-right German People`s Party (DVU) improved its score in Brandenburg slightly to 6.1 percent, up from 5.3 percent the last time at the polls.
Extremist parties from the far right and left were the big winners of the night, profiting from deep dissatisfaction with the state of the economy in the east, while Schroeder`s SPD suffered its worst ever election defeat in a state poll.
Schroeder`s SPD dropped to between 31.9 percent of the vote from 39.3 percent in 1999 in Brandenburg, the rural state surrounding Berlin.
In Saxony just to the south, the SPD fell to 9.8 percent from 10.7 percent, according to provisional official results, handing the Social Democrats their worst loss since 1949 in the new post-World War II Germany.
The results come just two weeks after the SPD posted its worst score in four decades in the western state of Saarland, and are the 10th time Schroeder`s party has lost in state elections since the chancellor was narrowly reelected in September 2002.
Meanwhile the former communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), successor to the party that ruled East Germany for 40 years, was able to improve its score in both states, profiting from its reputation as an advocate for eastern concerns.
The PDS tallied between 28 percent in Brandenburg, above the 23.3 percent it reached last time, while in Saxony, it improved its score slightly to 32.6 percent from 22.2 percent in 1999. The Greens and the Free Democrats also returned to parliament in Saxony, eking out 5.1 and 5,9 percent scores respectively.
Schroeder can nevertheless take comfort in major losses for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the chief conservative opposition party at the national level. The party evidently also paid the price for its support of Schroeder`s unpopular economic reforms.
The CDU shed nearly 16 percentage points in Saxony, where it governed with an absolute majority, to 41.1 percent, and more than seven percentage points in Brandenburg to 19.4 percent from 26.5 percent in 1999.
CDU general secretary Laurenz Meyer admitted the results were a disappointment, blaming the "climate of insecurity and protest" for the scores.
The gains made by the far-right are also a particular embarrassment in Germany, which carries the heavy weight of its Nazi past. But experts said neither party was likely to exercise strong influence over policies in their states.
In a sign of protest, Saxon premier Georg Milbradt and the candidates from the SPD, PDS, the environmentalist Greens and the liberal Free Democrats walked out during a television program when the state NPD chief Holger Apfel said: "This was a great day for all Germans who still want to be German."
Late Sunday evening, hundreds of demonstrators protested against the far-right gains in front of the state assembly in the east German city of Dresden, NTV news channel reported.
Brandenburg premier Matthias Platzeck of the SPD, who will likely be able to continue his grand coalition with the CDU in the state, said the election had been an uphill battle.
"We fought like lions," he said, adding that tackling the state`s deep economic problems would be an even bigger challenge.
"These will remain difficult times."
The results reveal widespread frustration in the east with enduring economic malaise and a chronically high unemployment rate -- 18.5 percent -- that is twice as high as in the west.
Schroeder has embarked on a major reform drive to slash unemployment and kickstart the economy, which has prompted mass weekly protests centered in the east.